


contagious chemistry

by swarkler



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: College AU, F/F, but also incredibly right, in which kara tries to set up alex and lena and it goes horribly wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-07-18 20:43:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16126367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swarkler/pseuds/swarkler
Summary: When Alex has her heart shattered by Maggie Sawyer, Kara takes it upon herself to find her sister the perfect girl. Things get a little trickier than expected when she realizes she has fallen for the girl she's supposed to be setting Alex up with.





	1. Chapter 1

Kara Danvers wasn’t homophobic. Much to the contrary, in fact. She deeply believed that every kind of love is beautiful and that everyone deserves to be treated equally and respectfully. She had participated in a school riot when some teachers in Midvale High suggested it was not okay for two boys to come to prom together. She had made sure every single candidate she had ever voted for was LGBT-friendly. In 8th grade she had gotten into a verbal fight with Susan Dilson when she made fun of Jack Donovan for painting his nails. Hell, to this day she even had that pride filter on her Facebook photo. Still, her reaction to her sister’s coming out definitely wasn’t ideal.   
Of course she’d love Alex no matter what, but the news really caught her by surprise. She and Alex had always been so close and she had absolutely no idea. How could she not have known? How could Alex not tell her? Did she not trust her enough? She didn’t care if Alex was gay, but she felt a little bit betrayed knowing that her sister kept such a huge thing from her for so long. It was stupid and selfish, she saw it now. She should have been more supportive instead of making it all about her feeling left out, this kind of thing was just so unlike her. She had already apologized about a thousand times, of course, and Alex said everything was fine, but Kara knew it wasn’t. Things were still weird between the two of them, they weren’t talking like they used to. And, to top it all off, Alex was extremely heartbroken from being rejected by that Maggie girl and, due to the complete mess she had made out things, Kara was being pushed away. She hated seeing her sister in pain and not being able to help. She had to make it right, and she had an idea. She was thinking it over when Winn met her for their daily breakfast appointment. 

“So...what’s in your mind? You’re quiet. You’re usually never quiet.” He asks, sensing that something was off. They had only known each other for a few months, but he already knew exactly how to read her. 

Kara chews at her Frappuccino’s straw. “Sorry… That fight with Alex is still on my mind. I came by her dorm last night and I’m pretty sure she was pretending not to be home so she didn’t have to let me in.”

“Wow, that hurts.” He says, frowning. “But I’m sure she’ll get over it in no time. You guys are family.”

“I know, but I’m just so worried about her. Alex has never been good at dealing with her feelings. She’s always been too...”

“Tough? Scary?” Winn suggests, and she kicks him lightly from beneath the breakfast table for it.   
He had always been terrified of Alex, though Kara could not understand why. 

“I was gonna say closed off. I’m afraid that she’s just gonna end up bottling it all in and eventually she’ll blow up into tiny pieces. I gotta do something about it.”

“I get the feeling you already have that something in mind.” He smirks. Winn loved a good action plan.  
“Well, I might have a plan, but there’s still some key elements missing…” She scratches her chin. “Where does one find single lesbian women in this campus?”

Winn nearly spits all his grape juice. “What?”

“I’m going to find Alex a new girlfriend, one way cooler than Maggie Sawyer…” She says her name as if it was some sort of contagious disease. Kara had actually never met Maggie Sawyer but she broke her sister’s heart so she automatically dislikes her. “But I don’t know any gay women, so I need help finding one.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I am. I even tried using Tinder earlier this morning, but for some reasons I haven’t gotten any matches yet.”

“Let me see if I’m getting this right…” Winn says, looking overly amused. “You created a fake Tinder profile for your sister?”

“Well, yeah. And I plan on using it to find Alex’s perfect girl, as soon as those matches start coming in.”

“Can I take a look?”

Part of her considers saying no, but to be completely honest she was terrible at this kind of thing and she was going to take all the help she could get, so she opens the app up on her phone and passes it to Winn so he can take a look.

“First of all, why are you in all of these pictures? Isn’t this supposed to be Alex’s fake Tinder profile?”

“Alex is in them too! I didn’t have any single shots of her on my phone, I just have our selfies.”

“Well, cut yourself out of them, then.”

“Why would I do that?” She feels mildly offended. “I know I don’t necessarily look my best but I didn’t think my face was what’s Alex from getting matches.”

“Well, of course not, but people probably think that you guys are like girlfriends or whatever.”

“Oh.” She realizes that Winn was probably right. She looked at those photos and they seemed super sisterly to her, but she and Alex looked nothing alike, it would actually make sense if people assumed they weren’t related. “Fine, I’ll cut myself out. Anything else?”

“Yeah, why is the description like 10 pages long?”

“Oh, c’mon.” Kara resists the urge to roll her eyes. For a genius, Winn sure didn’t like to spend a lot of time reading. “It’s literally one paragraph.”

“Yeah, and in Tinder world, that’s like a Game of Thrones novel. Talking too much about yourself makes you seem kinda desperate. You have to be a little more mysterious if you want people to actually be interested in talking to you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” She sighed. “I’m just not good at the whole flirting thing.”

“Well, your love life seems to be working fine. Speaking of which, where’s the boyfriend? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“He’s in Europe with his parents, they have this yearly tradition thing. He should be back in a couple of days.”

“Does he know you’re on Tinder while he’s away?”

Kara laughs. “I’m not on Tinder, Alex is on Tinder. She just doesn’t know it yet.”

“And judging by this disaster of a profile, she’s probably better off that way.”

“Well, it was the best idea that I could come up with. I mean, it’s not like I could just set her up with a friend. I don’t know any gay people. Do you know any gay people?”

It was more of a rhetorical question, so it takes her by surprise when Winn seems to be thinking over the subject. “Well… I do know this one girl. My lab partner. She’s a lesbian.”

“Lab partner? How come you waited this long to mention that?” 

Winn only took extremely advanced science-related classes. If this girl was his lab partner, she was probably really smart. Alex was also really smart. Kara felt excited about this already. 

“It’s… complicated.”

“Why? Is she a terrible lab partner?” Kara sure hopes not. This girl was her plan’s first light of hope.

“No, actually, she’s a great lab partner, but she’s a bit of a loner.” Winn seems unusually uncomfortable. 

“Okay, Alex is a bit of a loner. What are you not telling me?”

“It’s Lena Luthor.” He breathes out. “My lab partner is Lena Luthor.”

“Wait…” It takes Kara’s mind a few seconds to connect the dots. “Luthor as in Lex Luthor?”

“Yes. She’s his little sister.”

“Lex Luthor’s little sister goes to our school? And she’s your lab partner? How come I didn’t know about this?” 

“She keeps a pretty low profile, I guess. And I didn’t say anything to you because I thought it might be weird because of, you know…”

“Her brother being behind the terrorist attack that nearly killed my cousin last year?”

Kara hadn’t fully processed what happened yet. Her cousin was the only biological family she had left in the world, and he was like a superhero to her. He was only 17 when their entire family died in the Kosovo war, but he still managed to bring her to safety and find her the wonderful people that she was now proud to call family as well. He studied journalism in university but eventually went into politics, fighting for more rights for refugees like them. He became very popular in the media, but at the same time he was extremely hated by those who disagreed with his views. In fact, Lex Luthor hated him enough to design a bioweapon to murder him. Clark was lucky enough to survive. The 6 people who were with him that night weren’t. It broke Kara’s heart. Her cousin was the kindest man she had ever met. She couldn’t understand how someone could be so hateful, so cruel, to try to hurt somebody like that. She vaguely remembered hearing in the news that Lex had a sister, the now heiress to the Luthor empire, but she had no idea they were going to the same school. 

“Look, as the son of a convicted murderer, I thought it made sense I gave her the benefit of the doubt before crucifying her. Her brother might be a monster, but that doesn’t make her one, you know? She’s actually kind of cool. And a damn good lab partner. But I understand if you don’t wanna be setting her up with your sister.”

Winn had only told her about his father a few weeks before. It was understandably very hard for him to talk about it. Still, no matter what his dad had done, Winn was the sweetest guy she knew. She supposed that mean that girl deserved a chance too. “Well, if you say she’s cool, I’m okay with it. Can you introduce us?”

“Don’t you mean introduce her and Alex?”

“Of course not!” She exclaimed. “My sister’s just had her heart broken, I’m not setting her up with some stranger. Before I introduce her to Alex, I need to make sure this girl is the real deal.”

“Aren’t you worried that maybe you’re meddling into your sister’s life a little bit too much?”

“Shut up.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lena luthor was an emo kid and i can prove it

Almost ready to leave for class, Lena Luthor looks at herself in the mirror and sighs. Seven months had passed and it still happened nearly every morning. She watches the reflection attentively, noticing every single detail about the stranger looking back at her. She has no make up on, no lipstick, no mascara, not even a little powder. Her bareness reveals freckles she had forgotten existed and makes her the green in her eyes almost unnoticeable. Her lab coat feels clean and smells like softener, but looking closely she could see some minor creasing, especially around the elbows. It was not the perfectly pristine, shining white, freshly ironed coat she was used to wearing. The only real issue is her hair, tied up in a perfectly centered ponytail, not a single strand loose. It looked like it had been drawn onto her using an extremely precise calliper. She uses one hand to loosen the tie, allowing some hair to fall out, and also pulls the ponytail a little bit to the right, just enough to make it look carefree while still reasonably well positioned. Once that’s done, she checks out the reflection again and sees a perfectly normal, tired looking college girl. Which is what she is. Or at least what she’s trying to be.

The funny thing is, Lena isn’t even sure if looking “normal” is not in her nature or if she just feels so alien due to the many years being forced to look perfect. She had imagined that having all that pressure off her shoulders would feel liberating, but it didn’t. She had never particularly liked being dressed up all the time, but she had spent the better part of her life in heavy makeup and high end clothes. Now she had forgotten what she used to look like without them. The Luthor uniform always felt like a costume, but now that she has finally taken it off she can’t recognize what’s underneath. 

She thinks back to that four year old girl named Lena Lewis and wonders who she would be right now if she’d had the chance to grow up herself. She’s pretty sure she’d still be wearing that lab coat. She remembers very little of her years before being adopted, but she knows that her love of science, just like her love of women, was always in her DNA. The one difference would be that, being the daughter of a waitress, she’d probably be there on some sort of scholarship, working a part time job rather than having the largest dorm room on campus all to herself. Would she have friends? She supposes not being the heiress to a multi-million dollar empire and sister to a terrorist would have done wonders for her social life, but at the same time, Lena had never particularly liked socializing and maybe being brought up in a completely different environment wouldn’t have changed that. Would she be happy? Or would a life of having to struggle with money constraints be more distressful than growing up in a deeply twisted yet rich home? She would never know. Lena Lewis died along with her mother in that car crash 15 years ago. Lena Luthor was what emerged from that wreckage, for better or for worse. 

Once she’s done reminiscing, she grabs her backpack and leaves for class. Biochemistry is hardly her favourite subject, she much prefers physics or robotics, but there is one thing about it that makes it tolerable, almost enjoyable even: Winn Schott. She and Winn aren’t really friends, they’re barely more than casual acquaintances, but she likes having him as lab partner because he’s the only person in the entire campus who knows who she is but doesn’t treat her like a monster or a pariah. She supposes being the son of a notorious murderer has something to do with it, but she tries not to question it much. It’s nice having someone to talk to about science, specially someone who doesn’t work for her family.

“Hey there, Lena!” He greets her at their workstation, sounding a little bit friendlier than usual. “How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been well. How are you, Winn?” She makes a conscious effort not to sound disinterested.

“Good, good.” Winn was always a little bit shaky, but right now he looks positively nervous. “So, I was thinking… do you wanna hang out with me and some friends this Friday?”

She’s caught completely by surprise. “Oh, I don’t know…”

“It’s not like a date or anything, I swear. Just some harmless, group fun. We’re going to this bar just outside of campus, word is they have killer onion rings and the beer is really cheap…” His voice cuts off as he seems to remember he’s talking to a millionaire who’s definitely not affected by beer prices. “Anyway, uh, my friend’s band is playing, it should be really cool.”

Lena doesn’t know what to answer. On one hand, she had been doing a pretty good job at laying low during college and focusing on getting her degree as fast as humanly possible, but on the other, spending all day in her dorm room studying was getting a little boring. Maybe one night at a bar wouldn’t kill her. She hadn’t been out in what felt like forever. Also, Winn is a nice guy. His friends are probably nice too. 

“What are they playing?” She asks in order to buy herself some time before answering his question. 

“It’s supposed to be this 2000’s emo throwback night, so I’d say probably some Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, Simple Plan, perhaps some early Panic! at the Disco hits...you know, that good angsty stuff.”

Lena fails to hold back a laugh. As a teen, she was secretly a big fan of the emo scene as whole. She could particularly relate to the parts about having parents who just don’t understand and wanting to leave town and start fresh somewhere else. It feels silly, remembering those days, that old Hayley Williams poster she used to hide inside her closet and the moments she used to spend listening to those loud sad songs on her iPod with whatever girl she had managed to sneak into her boarding school dorm. The nostalgia makes the decision for her.  
‘  
“Okay, I’ll come.”

He seems surprised by this. “Really? That easy? I had a whole speech prepared about how all great scientists need to go out and grab a beer from time to time…”

She laughs again, still unsure of why Winn would want her to come hang out with his friends so much, but appreciating it nonetheless. Only then a pang of worry runs through her spine.

“Do your friends know you invited me?” She tries to make her words sound casual, but she’s suddenly too nervous. 

Winn doesn’t seem to read much into it. “Yeah, of course.”

“Do they know I’m…” She struggles to find the words. ”Me?”

She hates having to ask this, but it’s better making sure now than showing up Friday just to find out one of Winn’s friends would rather drink sulfuric acid than hang out with a Luthor. 

Finally, he realizes what she means. “Don’t worry! They won’t judge you, just like they don’t judge me.”

Lena doesn’t feel so reassured. Sure, they are both related to horrible criminals, but their situations are very different. Winn may be the son of a famous serial killer, but most people don’t even know the Toyman’s real name, much less that he had a son. Also, Winn is a sweet, funny, easy to like kind of guy. Lena is a Luthor. What Lex did was horrible, but even before that, Luthor Corp already had its share of enemies. And being the cold, distant, snobbish rich girl about to inherit it doesn’t bring her a lot of sympathy. 

Winn seems to notice the doubt in her eyes, adding quickly. “They know who you are, Lena. And they’re fine with it. It’s gonna be fun, I swear!”

“Okay…” She breathes out, feeling slightly less tense. “Friday night it is then.”

“Awesome! I’ll text you the address.” 

Finally, their professor waltz into the lab, a few minutes late as usual. Lena was genuinely happy for the invite, but she is glad to turn her attention back to the class. Winn is nice and a decent lab partner and part of her worries that hanging out with his friends is going to be terribly awkward and ruin their perfectly good working relationship. 

“It’s my turn to handle the Bunsen burner!” Winn exclaims as soon as they had been given their instructions.

“Please, we both know you’d probably set this place on fire with that thing.” Lena chuckles, snatching the equipment from his hands before he could do any lasting damage. Come to think of it, maybe he’s not that good of a lab partner after all. She can afford to risk it.


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as she’s done with class for the day, Kara swings by Alex’s dorm room once again, hoping that this time her sister would let her in.

“Hey, Alex…” She says as she knocks. “Open up, please. I’ve brought you your favorite muffin!”

The door opens but, instead of her sister, it’s a small red headed girl who opens it. Kara finds it hard to contain her disappointment. “Oh, hey there, Gina. Have you seen Alex?”

“I was actually just about to text you about this.” Gina looks worried. Even after two years of being roommates, she and Alex weren’t particularly close, at least as far as Kara knew. Something really bad must be going on if even Gina is concerned. “She said not to open the door if you came by but she’s been really mopey and sad lately and this is just so not like her, you know? She left for class this morning but she should be back in an like half an hour, feel free to come in and wait if you want.”

Kara considers the thought for a second but decides against it. Knowing Alex, being ambushed her in her own dorm room would only make her feel worse. “I think I better not, Gina… But please tell her I came by, okay?”

She leaves the little paper bag with the muffin next to Alex’s bed and heads back to her own dorm room, feeling sad. Fighting is not unusual for the Danvers sisters, but their fights usually don’t last this long. It’s cheesy, but Kara genuinely considers Alex to be her best friend in the whole world. She misses her.

As soon as she gets home, Kara decides do distract herself by focusing on her plan. She makes herself some green tea (the kind Alex likes to make), crawls up in her bed with her computer open on her lap and googles Lena Luthor. Winn said she’d come hang out with them Friday night but Kara was too curious to wait.

Most results she find aren’t very useful. The better part of them are news reports about Lex’s arrest and Luthor Corp’s future, only mentioning Lena in passing. Some are really outdated, such as _Youngest Luthor wins science competition at age 9_ or _Billionaire CEO Lionel Luthor dies at 57, leaving behind two children and a multimillion dollar company_.She’s able to find a photo of several teenagers in schoolgirl uniforms from a boarding school in Europe, but she can’t tell which one of them is Lena. Apparently Winn was right, the girl really did keep a fairly low profile, especially after her brother’s crime. Kara couldn’t even find a single picture of her that wasn’t from 10 years ago. She’s almost giving up when she finally finds an interesting link.

_Luthor family adopts 4 year old genius_ is the title, and Kara suddenly feels a twinge of sympathy for this girl she’s never met. Kara, too, was adopted, though she was lucky enough to find the Danvers’. She had never really thought about it much before, but she could’ve just as easily ended up in a family like the Luthors. The mere thought sends chills down her spine. The article behind the link is weirdly vague, stating only that at age 4 the girl was already able to read in multiple languages and mentally solve for the square root of 7-digit numbers, which makes Kara realize she would probably never be able to mentally compute the square root of any number greater than 4. It also briefly states that Lena’s mother had recently died in a car crash and that there was no father in her birth certificate. The text is followed by a picture of the newly extended Luthor family, Lionel standing tall and serious, Lilian beside him looking displeased as always and a young Lex smiling for the camera, holding Lena’s hand. The little girl was wearing a fancy red dress, delicate silver sandals and a matching silver bow above her dark child bangs. It would be a really cute picture if she didn’t look so absolutely terrified. Kara could relate. That baby had just lost her whole world.

“Kara? Hello?” Her roommate's voice startles her, and closes her laptop instinctively.

Julia seems to find this amusing. “Were you watching porn?”

She can feel the her cheeks flushing red as she speaks. “What? No, of course not, I was just, uh, doing research…”

“Research? That’s what they’re calling it these days?” Julia laughs. “No judgement here. Your boyfriend’s been gone for what, a month? A girl has needs.”

Kara loves Julia but sometimes she wishes she wouldn’t talk about her _needs_ so often. She tries to change the subject. “It’s only been two weeks. And he’s coming back this Friday, anyway.”

“Noted. I’ll find somewhere else to crash Friday, don’t won’t worry.”

“That is really not necessary…”

“You’ll thank me later.” She smirks. “In fact, speaking of thanking me, does Mike have some sort of twin brother you could introduce me to?”

Kara laughs. Julia has never been shy about how attractive she thinks Kara’s boyfriend is. In fact, Julia has never been shy about anything in general. Kara envies her in that way. “Nope, sorry to disappoint. But if he and I ever break up, I’ll tell him to give you a call.”

“Yes, that’d be great, thank you.”  
Kara rolls her eyes and is about to open her laptop back up when she hears knocking.  
“Kara! I got your muffin!”

Her computer nearly smashes onto the floor as she jumps up from her bed and runs to the dorm room entrance as if her life depended on it, opening the door and wrapping her sister up in the tightest bear hug she could muster. “Alex! Are you okay? I was so worried about you…”

She pulls back a little to take a good look at Alex, now noticing how absolutely sad and exhausted she looks. Kara wishes more than anything that she could fix things for her sister.

“I’m...dealing.” Alex breathes out. “I’m sorry I gave you the cold shoulder, I just needed some time to, you know...process.”

“It’s okay.” Kara still hasn’t fully let go of her. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I’m sorry about the way I reacted when you told me about Maggie. I made it all about my feelings. I should’ve been more supportive.”

“Yeah, you probably should’ve...” Alex opens up a sad smile. “But I know you meant well. It was just your way to deal with the news, I guess.”

“Well, just in case that it wasn’t clear already, I love you, Alex. You’re my big sister and I will always love you, no matter what you do or who you love. And just say the word and I’ll kick the butt of whoever breaks your heart.”

“I know.” Alex’s voice is neutral, but Kara can see tears forming in her eyes. “You don’t need to kick her ass, she did nothing wrong. Hell, you should probably kick my ass, I’m the one who went after Maggie even though I knew she has a girlfriend.”

“You did...what?!” Kara is unable to contain her shock.

“I know. That’s terrible. Trust me, Maggie made that very clear.” Alex avoids Kara’s eyes. “It’s just...I’ve never felt like this before, you know? And I really thought…”

Used to her sister trailing off whenever the conversation got difficult, Kara stares at her incisively, nudging at her to continue.

“I really thought she felt the same way. So I figured it was best if I just told her, and I did. Poured my heart out.”

“And what did she say?”

“That she had a girlfriend.” Alex chuckles ironically. “That she’s happy I finally figured myself out, but we should probably just stay friends.”

“Oh, Alex…” Kara comes closer, pressing her sister’s head against her shoulder. “I’m so proud of you.”

“For going after unavailable women?”

“Of course not, you dumb-dumb.” Kara lets out a quick laugh. “For standing up for yourself and your feelings. I know that must have been really hard for you.”

“It was.” Kara hears the pain in Alex’s voice and it breaks her heart all over again. Only then she realizes they are still standing on Kara’s doorstep.

“Do you wanna come in? Watch some Netflix?”

Alex wipes the tears in her eyes before nodding. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Hey, Julia!” Kara calls as she pulls her sister into the room. “Alex is staying over for Netflix tonight, is that okay?”

“Well, that depends!” The roommate responds from her bed. “What are we watching?”

Kara knows exactly what to answer. “Apparently there’s this show called The L Word and according to BuzzFeed it’s an absolute must watch for the newly out lesbians.”


	4. Chapter 4

Lena Luthor has been to thousands of social events where she met all kinds of influential people, from CEOs to presidents to Hollywood stars, but she doesn’t think she’s ever been this nervous while getting ready before. Dressing up as Luthor was easy, she had an assortment of beautiful dresses and suits, one to fit every possible prestigious occasion. She has nothing for casual drinks at the bar.

She puts on her favorite jeans. My mother must be laughing her butt off somewhere, she thinks to herself. A Luthor, going to some cheap university bar, wearing jeans. She didn’t even own a single pair of jeans before leaving for college, they were part of her new blending in wardrobe. She matches it with a sleeveless, lacy black top, nicer than the t-shirts and sweatshirts she’s been wearing to class but still not too nice, just enough to look okay without standing out. She heavily considers wearing heels - she hasn’t worn them in forever - but decides for more discreet dark flats. 

She allows herself to some minimal makeup, powder, a little mascara around the eyes, a neutral shade of lipstick. Her hair falls loose, framing her face, brushed but not styled in any particular way. She looks good. Not strikingly good, not perfect, but good. Exactly what she was aiming for.  
The bar is within walking distance from her dorm, but she still decides to call up her driver. It was dangerous for her, walking around alone that time of the night. She feels very childish as she asks for Gregor to drop her off a whole block away from the bar, so nobody sees her getting out of the town car. God, not standing out is more exhausting than she thought.

Only once she’s inside she realizes she’s probably never been to a bar before. She had been to venues that had bars, but not to a normal bar, she’d only seen those on TV. It looks just like she imagined it would: poorly lit, wooden tables, wooden chairs, wooden walls with a few dusted band posters hanging on them. In a corner, she sees an old pool table. The band stage is barely a full foot above the bar’s plane level, and the generally small place and doesn’t look like it’s been sound proofed at all, so the music is probably going to be extremely loud. Good. Means less talking for her. 

She sees Winn waving at her from a small table at the very back of the bar, sitting with whom she presumes to be his friends. She consciously puts on a smile before walking over to them. 

“Hey, guys, this is Lena!” He says excitedly. “Lena, these are my friends: James, Kara and Mike!”

“Everyone calls me Mon-El.” Mike says, nodding at her as a greeting.

As expected, Winn’s friends look nice. The one she assumes to be James is by far the better dressed one, wearing a neatly pressed light blue button up and black pants, seeming a little bit older than the rest of the group. Mike - or Mon-El, whatever nickname is that - looks like the average american frat boy, with his scruffy beard, the white t-shirt that shows off his muscles and dark grey sweatpants. The girl, Kara, is probably his girlfriend, judging by the way he has his arm around her. Kara is extremely beautiful in a very girl next door Barbie kind of way, blonde hair pulled up in a slightly messy ponytail, blue eyes, pink sweater, soft looking jeans and a bright smile on her lips. Not Lena’s type, thank god. Maybe she was finally getting over her straight girl phase. 

She greets everybody with a quick wave and takes a seat between James and Winn. On the table she sees there’s already a plate of those famous killer onion rings and she grabs one just so she has something to focus on other than the crowd around her.

“So, I’m gonna get some more drinks.” James says as he gets up from the table. “Anybody want anything?”

“A beer for me, please.” Lena hasn’t had a beer since sophomore year in boarding school, she’s more of a whisky on the rocks kind of girl, but she doesn’t feel like going for the strong stuff. She needs to be somewhat conscious in order to navigate this situation.

The night goes on with ease, Lena sitting mostly quietly, listening to Winn’s friends joking around. It feels fun, laughing at silly things. No one mentions her family in any way, which she is extremely grateful for. Eventually, all the boys on the table leave to play pool, leaving Lena and Kara alone.

She tries to remember how to make casual conversation, an art she used to actually be really good at. “So, Kara, how long have you and Mike been together? You guys make a really cute couple.” 

“Almost 3 months, I think… we met during freshman orientation. “ Kara grins. “I really didn’t like him at first, believe it or not, but he… he grows on people.”

Lena shoots a quick look at Mike and she can understand perfectly well why Kara wouldn’t like him at first. The growing part she isn’t so sure about. There’s something about dudebros that makes Lena want to roll her eyes so hard her pupils would probably get lost. Still, Kara likes him, and she seems like an actual decent person, so Lena plays nice. 

“I’m sure he does.” She replies politely.

“So… how about you? Do you have a boyfriend or...girlfriend?”

Lena nearly spits out her beer. She’s sure Kara thinks that or girlfriend commentary sounded natural and laid back but that is definitely not the case. So Winn apparently has been going around telling people she’s gay. She’s not as bothered by it as she imagined she would be. It’s not a secret, not anymore anyway. She’s just not used to speaking about it openly yet.

“Not right now, no…” She feels that fifth beer taking over her when she adds. “Being the sister of a terrorist doesn’t do much to attract the ladies.”

She regrets saying it immediately but, though Kara’s eyes go a little wide with her comment, she is not as taken aback by it as expected, looking sad rather than uncomfortable or shocked. “That must really suck, being judged your family’s mistakes.”

It does, but she doesn’t say it. “Well, some people believe evil runs in the Luthor DNA.”

“Aren’t you…” Kara frowns at her reply. “Aren’t you adopted?”

The answer to that question was a whole lot more complicated than Lena was willing to get, even while being slightly drunk. She finds a way to change the subject. “I take it you’ve googled me recently?”

Kara blushes almost instantly, looking like a small child caught with her hands inside the cookie jar. “I’m sorry, I was just curious, I didn’t meant to -”

“Don’t worry.” Lena smiles genuinely. “It’s fine. You probably didn’t find anything interesting. There’s not much about me in the web.”

“I really didn’t.” Kara nods. “If you don’t mind my asking...why is that? There is plenty of articles about you as a child and at some point they just stop. You’re barely mentioned.”

Lena feels like she’s being interviewed, but for some reason - perhaps the alcohol - she doesn’t mind. Hell, she might as well get used to it. “When I was 14, my mother went through my computer and found some text messages I had sent to one of my lady friends that were...more than friendly, if you get what I’m saying. She thought I was going to ruin the family reputation, so she sent me off to a religious European boarding school for sexually deviant young women. I still ‘d come back on summers and important events to pose for the occasional perfect Luthor family portrait, but I was strictly prohibited from speaking to the press.”

Kara looks absolutely distraught. “Lena, that is… that’s terrible!”

“But it wasn’t.” Lena laughs loudly, clearly making the other girl even more startled. “It’s really kind of a backwards notion, isn’t it? You find out your daughter might like girls so you send her to a school full of other girls who like girls. That will make her straight, right? Sure, there was an awful lot of praying during the day and constant talks about biblical punishment, but in the end I think we all left that place a lot gayer than we were when we got there.”

Only when she’s done speaking she realizes Kara’s face looks about the same shade as a freshly harvested tomato. Strange. She didn’t take Kara for the kind of straight girl who’s made uncomfortable by that sort of talk. 

Still, despite whatever reservations she may have, Kara persists on the subject, seeming interested. “And now? You don’t seem to be hiding it anymore. Did your mother finally come to terms with who you are?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” Lena’s chuckle sounds a lot darker than she meant it to be. She takes a hard, long sip at her beer, wishing it was whiskey. “But she doesn’t care about what the press will say about it anymore. I mean, lesbian sure sounds a lot better than terrorist, doesn’t it?”

Regretting the dark tone the conversation had taken, Lena adds quickly. “I’m sorry, I got a little carried away. Must have been the beer talking.”

“No! It’s fine.” Kara is still looking a little flustered, but she smiles warmly, stretching out her hand from across to table to touch Lena’s forearm reassuringly. “You’ve been through a lot. I think it’s actually pretty cool, having the strength to talk about it like that.”

She’s not exactly sure of what Kara means, but Lena feels herself blushing regardless. She tries to come up with a reply but, thankfully, the band starts playing their first song and it’s suddenly too loud for her to say anything.


	5. Chapter 5

“So, what did you think of her?” Kara asks as they’re walking back to her dorm room, his arm around her shoulders.

He frowns. “What did I think of who?”

“Lena Luthor!” She says, as if it couldn’t possibly be more obvious.

“Oh...She’s really hot, isn’t she? From what you told me I was expecting more of a nerdy type, I don’t know.”

Kara rolls her eyes, wondering why was she expecting any different type of answer. “I mean what did you think of her personality.”

“She has one of those?” He feigns shock and she elbows him in the ribs, frustrated. “Okay, okay, I’m kidding. She seems fine, I guess. Polite. Quiet. Nice.”

Kara thinks over the conversation she and Lena had while the boys were away and realizes she had a very different impression. “Do you think she and Alex would get along?”

“I’m not sure... “ He shrugs. “They have the whole cold, scary looking thing in common. I don’t know if that means they’ll be best friends or they’ll hate each other. Why do you care anyway?”

“Because I’m trying to set them up, remember? That’s like the whole reason why we invited Lena tonight.” 

“Oh, right.” He nods with that lost puppy look on his face. That look usually melts Kara’s heart, but today she’s just not having it. “You mentioned that. I’m sorry. Wait, Lena Luthor is gay?”

She feels like she’s about to explode, so she takes a deep breath before responding. “Yeah, she is, that’s sort of the point..”

He seems puzzled. “Really? She doesn't look gay.”

They have been over this in the past. “There’s no such thing looking gay, Mon-El. Gay people come in all sizes, shapes and clothes.”

“I don’t know, Kara. I mean, have you seen Alex? Lena Luthor looks nothing like that, are you sure she’s a lesbian?”

There are so many wrong things in that one sentence that Kara considers blasting out a whole lecture but it’s late and she’s had a long day and she just doesn’t feel like being the teacher right now. Instead, she simply answers. “Yes, I’m positive. She couldn’t have made it more clear, in fact.”

“Really? Wait… did she hit on you?” He seems amused rather than jealous and that makes it so much worse.

“No, she didn't. We just talked.” She feels suddenly defensive, even though there’s no reason for her to be. Kara is admittedly not very good at flirting and/or realizing people are flirting with her, but her conversation with Lena Luthor seemed nothing but friendly. Heavy, but friendly.

Finally, they reach her dorm. It’s nearly 3 AM, so there’s not a single soul outside, probably no one awake inside as well. It feels strange. She’s so used to seeing that place so full of life.

“Can I come in?” He asks, a suggestive grin on his lips.

“Not today, babe, I’m sorry.” She replies without even thinking. “Julia couldn’t find somewhere else to stay and she has this really important test tomorrow...”

Mon-El looked down, visibly disappointed. “Okay. I’ll just stay at the Kappa Sig house, then. Lunch tomorrow?”

“Of course.” She smiles at him, hoping to make him feel better.

“Great! Good night, then.” He wraps her in a loose hug and plants a kiss on her forehead. “Love you, Kara.”

She retributes with a quick peck on his lips. “Love you too, Mike.”

As she walks into her empty dorm room, she asks herself why did she lie. She hadn’t seen her boyfriend in weeks, wasn’t she supposed to jump at the chance of having the room just for the two of them? She was really looking forward to seeing him again but, now that he’s here, she doesn’t feel like it. Mon-El might be a little misguided, but deep down he’s a really sweet guy with a great heart and she loves him for it. Still, she sometimes wishes he paid more attention to what she had to say. She genuinely believes he has the potential of becoming a great person, but nudging him in that direction is often exhausting and makes her feel pushy.

She climbs into bed but she doesn’t feel like sleeping just yet, so she grabs her laptop to watch some Netflix. She’s searching for the softest rom-com she could find when she notices that the browser tab with Lena Luthor’s boarding school page is still open. Now that she’s learned so much more about that place, she decides to reexamine it.

It doesn’t look particularly like the website of a gay conversion boarding school, at least not at first. There are plenty of religious references here and there, but that by itself isn’t really a bad thing. She finds the same class picture she saw a couple of days before, but this time she can tell exactly which one Lena is. She’s sitting on the bottom right, legs crossed, hands over her knees, back straight, red lipstick, heavy mascara around her eyes, her hair tied up in the most perfect ponytail Kara Danvers has ever seen and a sharp look on her face that is halfway between extremely confident and downright terrifying. It feels strange. It’s the same girl Kara met at the bar, for sure, but somehow they look nothing alike. She checks the date on the photo and realizes it was taken over a year before Lex’s terrorist attack. That probably explains the difference, though it’s still shocking to look at.

Kara starts to notice the other girls around Lena. They all look a little bit similar, and it’s not just the uniform. Their makeup, their hair, their posture, it was all so...perfect. Perfect in a creepy, unconceivable way. None of them pull it off quite as well as Lena does, though. She looks exactly in her element there. A Luthor, through and through. It occurs to Kara that all of these weirdly perfect teenagers are extremely rich _sexually deviant_ girls. Sounds like a very strange place to go to high school. 

She still wasn’t sure of how she felt about Lena Luthor. They didn’t have much of a chance to talk, but the little talking they did was very… unsettling. The girl she met didn’t have the confidence of the girl in the photo, but her presence was just as striking in a completely different way. Boarding school Lena looked powerful. Present day Lena looks strong, a kind of strong only people who have been broken down and rebuilt from the rubble can achieve. She looks kind of lonely, too. It makes Kara unsure of whether she and Alex would be a good match, they both have a lot of emotional baggage. Yet, at the same time, it also makes Kara want to befriend this girl. She seems like she could use a friend or two.


	6. Chapter 6

Lena wakes up 10 minutes before her alarm, or, to be more precise, 10 minutes before the time her alarm would’ve rung if it wasn’t a Saturday morning. She got home fairly late last night so has barely gotten any sleep, but at this point she’s used to functioning like this, sometimes she even prefers it. Can’t have nightmares if you never sleep. 

She usually avoids leaving her room if it’s not 100% necessary, but she’s starving, so she decides to buy herself a coffee and a bagel at the nearest open cafeteria. It’s nearly deserted, as expected at 7 a.m on Saturday, so she’s particularly shocked when her eyes catch someone waving at her from a nearby table. 

Kara Danvers looks at her excitedly, her smile way too wide for that time of the day. Lena is definitely not a morning person, so she considers just pretending she didn’t see Kara there, but she probably could not pull it off without seeming rude. Also, she actually kind of likes Kara. 

“Lena, hey!” She says loudly, attracting disapproving looks from three very tired people who were probably just hoping to have their coffee time in silence. Lena can relate. “It’s me, Kara, from the bar yesterday, come sit with me!”

Lena lets out a quick laugh as she takes a seat next to her. _As if I could possibly have forgotten_. “Good morning, Kara.”

“I’m so glad I just ran into you.” Kara grins, looking genuinely over the moon. “Usually Winn meets me for breakfast, but I guess he’s still sleeping. We left pretty late last night.”

“That we did.” Lena agrees, so puzzled by this girl’s humor she cannot stop herself from making a comment. “How are you so cheerful? You must have had 4 hours of sleep at most.”

“I think it was more like 3, actually.” Kara confesses, looking slightly guilty yet somewhat proud, like a rebellious 7 year old. “I don’t know, I don’t even feel tired right now. My body just works that way. I’m a very energetic person.”

“I’m feeling a bit envious, I must admit.” Lena replies honestly. “I’m quite terrible in the mornings, I’m afraid.”

“You don’t seem terrible at all!” Something about the way she says it is so genuine that suddenly Lena really does feel slightly less terrible. “Why are you up this early, anyway?”

“Anxious to get ahead on some stuff for class, that’s all.” It’s not the truth, but it’s not exactly a lie either. Studying was pretty much her plan for the whole day, the whole weekend even.

“Winn says you’ve already burned through the readings of the entire biochemistry syllabus.” Kara replies matter-of-factly, clearly not buying the answer. 

“Well, that’s true, but I’m only halfway through next semester’s readings.” 

Lena doesn’t mean to be funny, but Kara laughs anyway. Has there been a single moment throughout their entire conversation in which Kara wasn’t at the very least smiling? Lena doesn’t think so. Only then she realizes she’s smiling, too. She thought she’d be more annoyed by Kara’s relentless good mood, but it turns out to be quite contagious. 

“You’re gonna burn that brain of yours with all that studying.” She says as she points at Lena’s head. “Maybe one of these days you can’t teach me to be more like you. I have a huge test coming up this Monday and I’ve been trying to sit my butt down and study all week, but I always get distracted.”

You definitely don’t want to be more like me, Lena thinks, but keeps it to herself. Now that she’s sober it’s much easier to keep her somberness to a bare minimum. “What subject is it on?”

“Statistics.” Kara shrinks a little as she says the word, her lips twisted in an almost cartoonish frown. 

“I take it you’re not a big fan of math?” 

“Not at all.” The girl shakes her head vehemently. “My _sister_ is the science-y one at the Danvers house. I’m...more of a people person.”

There’s something a little strange about the way Kara says the word _sister_ but Lena ignores it. 

“Well, if you’re really desperate, I can try to help you out. I used to be a math tutor back in boarding school.” Lena is not sure why she adds that last part, trying to forcefully stop her brain from thinking back to what _really_ happened in most of her _tutoring_ sessions. Tutoring, ironically, was one of the few exceptions to her school’s policy against having two girls in the same room without adult supervision, which was the whole reason why she signed up for it in the first place. In her defense, sometimes it was really just tutoring, and she wasn’t half bad at it, so maybe she could help Kara out.

“Really?” Just like that, Kara’s eyes light up and her perpetual smile is back, as if it was never gone. “That would be so great. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Suddenly, Lena realizes what’s so different about that girl. She feels everything so intensely. When she’s happy about something as simple as running into an acquaintance at a cafeteria, she’s overjoyed. When she’s frustrated over something as common an unwanted test, she visibly deflates. When she’s grateful over a minor favor, she acts as if it were the single greatest thing anyone had ever done for her. It’s a huge contrast from what Lena is used to: taking your feelings and shoving them somewhere so distant and isolated you’ll never have to deal with them again. _What a wreckage it will be if this girl ever experiences pain_ , she thinks. Judging by the carefree way Kara carries herself, Lena doesn’t believe she ever has, and she hopes she never will.

“So, how about tomorrow afternoon?” Kara asks, pulling Lena away from her thoughts. “If that’s okay, of course. I definitely don’t want to bother you or your schedule.”

Lena laughs. “Well, next semester’s readings can wait an hour or two, I think.”

“You’re the best! Do you wanna meet up here or like, at the library or something?”

“We can just use my dorm room.” She shrugs. “I have a whiteboard hung on one of the walls, so it actually makes for a pretty decent classroom.”

Kara seems a little worried. “Your roommate won’t mind?” 

It’s such a foreign concept that it takes a while for Lena to understand what Kara is talking about, but she chuckles when she does.

“I don’t have a roommate, Kara. My family has made some pretty sizable donations to this university, so the administration is constantly trying to please me. “ She’s very careful not to sound snobbish or braggy. “I’m pretty sure mine is the largest room on campus, and I have it all to myself. Perks of being a Luthor, I suppose.”

The girl’s eyes go wide in realization, and she looks like she had genuinely forgot that Lena was a Luthor in the first place. It’s an oddly liberating feeling. “Right, yeah. Sounds awesome! Text me address, I’ll be there at 3.”

“I, uh… I don’t actually have your phone number.” Lena feels a bit strange asking, so she doesn’t, leaving the question implied. 

“Of course. Can you lend me your phone real quick?”

The idea of handing someone her unlocked phone goes against pretty much everything Lena believes and several Luthor Corp cybersecurity policies, but she does without hesitation. Kara types at it for no more than a few seconds and returns it. Lena lets out an almost inaudible sigh of relief the second she has her phone back in her hands. 

“There. Tomorrow, 3.p.m. Don’t forget!” 

Lena turns her gaze back to her phone in order to put a reminder on her calendar and grins as she sees that Kara saved her contact as “Kara Danvers” succeeded by at least 5 different adorable animal-related emojis.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my compsci major might have shown a little too much in this chapter sorry

As she walks towards Lena’s dorm room, Kara feels pretty satisfied with her plan so far. Even if the original idea doesn’t work out, she has found herself a new friend and she might even get a decent statistics grade because of it. Still, she feels confident that Lena is perfect for Alex. Much like Kara’s sister, the girl is crazy smart, dedicated, strong and has been through a lot. Kara could already image the two of them discussing some overly complicated science-y issue with Eliza at the Danvers family Christmas as Kara and Mon-El ignore them while stuffing their faces with food. It feels perfect.

She knocks on the door excitedly, actually strangely looking forward to studying statistics. Lena opens up quickly, looking very casual in her university sweatshirt and pajama pants, her face bare and her hair tied up into what looks like an intentionally messy bun. Kara can’t keep herself from thinking back to the Lena from the boarding school picture. She looks very different now, but the signs of her older self are definitely there. She still seems perfect, but a more natural, effortless kind of perfect. Far more beautiful too, at least in Kara’s opinion, but Lena is the kind of girl who could make a hotdog costume look beautiful. Before her sister’s coming out, Kara had never really thought much about the prospect of finding other girls attractive, but she’s certain that if she swung that way she would definitely be attracted to Lena. Hopefully that means Alex will be, too. 

“Ready to crush those means and variances?” Lena asks, ironically enthusiastic, ushering Kara inside.

“You bet!” She replies promptly, smiling even though the mere sound of the word _variance_ gives her chilling flashbacks of desperately fumbling with her calculator during High School. 

Lena’s dorm room looks absolutely nothing like a college dorm room. It’s about twice the size of Kara’s, and decorated in a modern style that makes it look even larger. It seems more like one of those New York luxury studios that only really exist on Pinterest, with a king size bed right across from the entrance, a small but classy living room with an L-shaped couch and a TV on one side and a large desk with an expensive-looking computer and several neatly stacked books on the other. On the wall near this office-like space hangs the whiteboard Lena talked about, currently filled with complicated diagrams and equations Kara can’t even bare to look at. 

Lena must notice the face she makes at the board. “Sorry, that’s for my physics class, I forgot to clean it up. Statistics is a lot more palatable, I promise.”

“I sure hope so.” Kara agrees absent mindedly, still taking in her surroundings. “Your room looks like it’s been renovated by the Property Brothers...” 

“It was.” 

Kara’s eyes go wide as she realizes Lena’s so rich that could very well be true. “Was it really? Did you meet Jonathan and Drew in person? That is so cool, I _love_ their show…” She stops as she notices Lena giggling. “You’re totally messing with me, aren’t you?”

“Sorry.” The girl replies, still smiling jokingly. Despite being teased, Kara finds it a bit refreshing, seeing her grin like that.They’ve only known each other for a couple of days but she has already noticed that Lena Luthor doesn’t smile very often, and when she does, it’s usually in a polite, contrived way. It’s nice to see a genuine smile, for once. “It was probably some fancy, overpaid architect, I’m sure. But it turned out quite nicely, didn’t it?”

Kara nods, taking one more look around, this time paying more attention to detail. Though there are plenty of decorative items on the surfaces and shelves, there are no photos, no posters, no flowers. Come to think of it, there’s not even much color, most of the furniture is either gray or dark blue. Pretty, but impersonal. Kara loves to look at it, but she could never live in a place like that, at least not without making some changes so it feels like her own. 

“So, statistics.” Lena says as she wipes the ugly complicated numbers from the board. “What are you guys studying right now?”

“Probability distributions.” Kara replies with a note of distaste in her tone. 

Lena’s eyes light up as she hears it and Kara realizes this girl is positively insane. “Oh, I _love_ probability distributions.”

“You can’t be serious.No one _loves_ probability distributions.” Kara states matter-of-factly. “What’s there to love? Formulas with lots of greek letters?”

“Well, I do love a good formula.” Lena smirks. “And I love how the whole concept is so simple but so powerful. Did you know that the very basis of Luthor Corp’s self-driving car project is probability distributions? It’s all about combining different uncertainties in order to make decisions.” 

“What do you mean with uncertainties?” Kara narrows her eyes. “I thought self-driving cars were supposed to be _super_ certain.”

“And they are.” Lena is visibly glowing. Clearly, this is a subject she likes very much. “But they’re never 100% certain. All hardware is flawed. The sensors that gather information about a self-driving car’s position, velocity and surroundings are flawed. A sensor may say that you’re going at 60mph, but you’re actually at 60.3. This doesn’t make a lot of difference when you’re talking about a single sensor, but imagine there are lots and lots of sensors, each with their own little uncertainties. You need to combine all of these probabilities in order to get a real picture of where you’re at right now so you can decide what to do next.”

“That sounds cool.” She replies genuinely. “And a little scary, to be honest. I don’t see how the dumb formulas I learn in statistics class are useful for that, though.”

“I’ll show you.” The girl turns to the board, drawing a bell-shaped curve Kara was way too familiar with. 

“That’s a normal distribution.” She says mechanically. 

“Correct!” Lena exclaims in a professor-y way that makes Kara grin. “So, do you remember what these are?” She points at two greek letters she’s written down beneath curve.

“One of them is the mean and the other is the…” She scrambles for the word. “Variance?”

Lena seems pleased with her answer. “That’s very close. This one is actually the standard deviation, that’s basically just the square root of the variance.”

“Right. Standard deviation. I remember.”

“Do you know what it means?” 

“I have the formula written down somewhere…” Kara opens her bag to search for her notes, but Lena stops her. 

“Don’t worry about the formula.” She smiles. “I’m asking about what the formula means.” She taps at the curve drawn on the board.

“I guess I never really thought about it.” Kara frowns. “What does it mean?”

“It’s basically a way to measure this.” Lena draws a line across the width of the curve’s peak. “The highest point is the mean right? In a normal distribution, we assume that most instances are fairly close to the mean. Like, let’s say you take a blood test to measure your cholesterol. If you’re a healthy person, your cholesterol levels will probably be close to the average cholesterol of girls your age. Maybe a little bit lower, maybe a little bit higher, but still pretty close. The width of the peak, that’s how far away from the average a person’s cholesterol usually is. In other words, it’s how much it _deviates_ from the mean.”

Kara nods, feeling surprisingly interested. “So if I have a very wide peak, that means things can vary a lot from the mean, so the standard deviation is high?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” She turns her attention back to the board, this time writing down the formulas. Kara feels her stomach sinking at the sight. “And understanding this is useful, because it makes the formulas way easier to remember.” 

Kara fails to stop herself from giggling. 

“What?” Lena asks, her grin withering away into a slight pout. “Am I a terrible teacher?”

“No, not at all.” She feels bad the thought even occurred to Lena. “It’s just...you’re such a nerd. It’s kind of cute. ”

“I’m not a nerd.” She notices the other girl’s cheeks flushing. Kara had not taken Lena Luthor for the kind of girl that _blushes_. “I just...like science.”

“Just like all the other nerds.” Kara smirks. “But that’s not something to be ashamed about! Being a nerd is great. It means you’re passionate about the things that interest you. I can be a huge nerd, too. Different kind of nerd, but still a nerd.”

Lena seems interested in this. “Really? What kind of a nerd are you?”

She shoots a look at the sky through Lena’s window. “I’m a stars nerd. When I was little I used to have this children’s astronomy book that had drawings of all the constellations. Almost every night I would sit on the porch with my dad and try to find them.” 

“Aren’t you from Midvale?” Lena frowns. “How come you could see all of these stars from your porch while being less than half an hour away from National City?”

Kara considers dodging the question, but decides against it. She had spent too long trying to avoid the memories of her past. “I’m not from Midvale, not originally at least. I moved there when I was 13, when the Danvers family adopted me. I was actually born in a very rural village in Eastern Europe. The view of the stars was pretty great there. ”

“So…” Lena eyes her sympathetically. “Which constellation was your favorite?”

She feels a wave of gratitude rushing through her as Lena gracefully changes the subject. She has been trying hard to talk about home more often, but the memories are still too painful sometimes. 

“Well, I love all of them. “ She feels herself grinning as she answers. “But if absolutely have to pick a favorite, I’d say it’s Orion.”

“Why?” 

Kara realizes she’s never been asked that before. “Do you know The Three Sisters?”

Lena laughs. “That’s literally the only constellation I know.”

“They’re actually part of a larger constellation that’s called Orion, the Hunter. I like it because, no matter where you are, it’s always easy to find. It’s always up there, watching over you, you know?”

Kara leaves out the part about how she used to find solace in looking up at Orion, specially in her first few years with the Danvers’. She doesn’t say anything about how the stars in the sky were the only thing in her life that had stayed the same after her whole world was destroyed. However, judging by the kind expression in her face, Lena must have heard it anyway.

“God, you really are a nerd.” The words are teasing, but Lena says them with a soft smile. 

Kara shrugs. “Proudly.”


	8. Chapter 8

Lena Luthor spends most of her early Monday class thinking about Kara Danvers and how much she had misjudged her. She had immediately assumed that Kara’s bubbly personality was a fruit of a worryless, happy family life. Yet, yesterday she was introduced to a whole new side of Kara. What Lena previously thought of as naive she was now finding admirable. It must take some absurd amount of strength, staying positive and lighthearted after having your life torn apart. Lena definitely couldn’t have done it. She let herself become bitter instead. 

Still, the most shocking part of last night is perhaps that they actually had fun. Kara may not like math, but she’s smart and catches on quickly when she’s focused. Lena realizes she must be taking the test right now and sincerely hopes their studying session helped. 

Lena had never really had a friend like that. Most of her _friends_ were egotistical, self centered rich girls from boarding school, and they always had some sort of ulterior motive to be nice to her, be it money, favors or sex. Not that Lena cared, in fact, high school Lena Luthor loved it in a very twisted way, loved how powerful it made her feel. The closest thing she had ever had to a real friend did not last very long: they fell in love, and this love ultimately destroyed their friendship.

Kara is nothing like the girls from boarding school. She’s kind, down to earth and, as far as Lena can tell, has no hidden agenda. It feels good to have someone like that in her life again, and Lena is terrified she’ll develop feelings for this girl and ruin things as she did the last time. To be completely honest, she’s already starting to. She falls for people easily, it’s of the things her mother most criticizes her for. Luckily, she usually gets over her crushes just as fast as she develops them. And Kara is straight. Whatever feelings Lena may have will probably be gone in a week or two at most. 

Lena is pulled out of her thoughts as she notices an unknown brunette standing next to her desk, waving in order to get her attention. 

“Hi?” She frowns at the stranger.

“Hey.” The girl fumbles with her bag and pulls out what Lena recognizes as the paper she turned in a couple of weeks ago. “You’re Lena Luthor, right?”  
“Yes.” Lena nods. “And you are…?”

“Alex Danvers. I’m the new T.A. for this class.” She replies, cold but polite, and hands Lena the paper. “Ms.O’Donnell is very impressed with your work. Can we talk after class?”

Lena nods, curious. Danvers. Kara did mention she had a science-loving sister, could this be her? Danvers is a fairly common last name, there’s no way to be sure. This girl definitely does not look anything like Kara, she was all dark hair, dark clothes and dark eyes with dark circles around them. Yet, apparently Kara was adopted, so her sister is not necessarily a biological one. Still, Alex’s coldness is such a contrast to Kara’s warmth that Lena finds it hard to believe those two could have grown up at the same household.

She meets Alex Danvers on the corridor just outside of class as soon as Ms.O’Donnell is done with her lecture. “So… what did you want to see me for?”

Alex gestures for them to sit on a nearby bench and pulls her computer out of her messenger bag, opening it up on her lap. “So, Ms. O’Donnell is now leading the Assistive Technologies Lab in the Biomedical Engineering Department and we’re in need of some extra hands in our new research project. She read your paper on interpreting EEG signals and thought you might be just what we need. You interested?”

The girl’s tone is cold and serious but Lena can see in her eyes that she is at least a little bit excited over her research, even if she doesn’t want to show it. Lena doesn’t really have the extra time to take on a new project - she needs her diploma _fast_ \- but Advanced Topics In Biomedical Engineering is her favorite class and Ms.O’Donnell seems like a great teacher. “What’s this project about?

“Have you ever heard of BCI?” Alex replies with the slightest of smiles on her lips. 

“I have.” _Brain-Computer Interface_. Lena had read a few papers on the subject recently and thought it was fascinating. “What are you using BCI for?” 

“So, there’s been a lot of development in using BCI to control simpler devices such as wheelchairs because there’s not a lot of nuance to it, you go front, back, left or right and that’s it. We’re working on a way to amplify the brain signals in order to allow for more precise control. Right now, we’re experimenting with bionic hands.” 

Instinctively, Lena looks at her own hand. So simple, yet so complicated. Motor-wise, the human hand is one of the most interesting parts of the human body, capable of moving and feeling in delicate but precise ways no other part can. You can’t describe the moves of a hand in terms of front, back, left and right, it’s a lot more complicated than that, and requires much better signal quality than the BCI sensors Lena had read about could offer. She’s immediately interested. “Do you guys have any results so far?”  
Alex is outright grinning at this point and Lena decides that she likes this girl. She definitely seems a bit distant but Lena can relate. “We’ve had some great results with grasping and we’re now experimenting with typing. The end goal would be to have someone with no hand mobility being able to handwrite their own name.” 

She gestures to the computer where Lena can see a video of a bionic hand slowly typing into a large keyboard, the words “Hello World” being spelled out in a monitor attached to it. 

“I’m in.” Lena says before she has enough time to think it over, knowing that if she had asked for time to consider the offer she would probably end up backing out. 

“Good.” Alex nods, now back to her cold façade. “We meet at the lab after lunch every Thursday. I’ll see you there. In the meantime, you might want to read up on some related work.” 

“I definitely will.” 

As the girl closes the video’s tab on her computer, Lena gets a glimpse of her wallpaper before she shuts it down entirely. A picture of young Alex and Kara Danvers, Kara looking over the moon while holding a gigantic six-layer ice cream cone, Alex eyeing her in false disapproval. That answers Lena’s question, the two of them really are sisters. Interesting. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no i'm not dead (yet), i've just been focusing on writing some original stuff, but i missed this story

On her way to meeting her friends for lunch, Kara pulls out her phone and opens Lena’s chat, typing with one hand as she walks. _Aced the test! Thank u so so so so much! I owe u one. ___

__“So who’s got you smiling like that?” James asks as soon as she sits down on their usual table._ _

__“No one.” She says firmly, though feeling her cheeks blushing a little. “I did really well on my statistics quiz, that’s enough to have anybody on a good mood.”_ _

__Winn furrows his brow. “You? Acing statistics? Don’t you despise math with every fiber of your being or something?”_ _

__“Well…” She’s not sure why she hesitates. “Lena Luthor helped me out, actually.”_ _

__“What? You never let _me_ help you! And God knows I always offer.” Her best friend’s expression goes from confused to downright betrayed. “What does Lena Luthor have that I don’t?”_ _

__James laughs. “Well, I can definitely point out a few things…”_ _

__She knows he doesn’t really mean it in a disgusting sexist way, but Kara can’t help the angry look she shoots him. “She’s a really good teacher, that’s all.”_ _

__“I’m a good teacher.” Winn states incredulously. “I’m a good teacher, aren’t I, Mon-El?”_ _

__Kara turns around to find that her boyfriend has arrived, a tray with two large burgers and fries in his hands, taking the seat right next to her and planting a kiss on her cheek as usual. “Sure you are, dude. You got me through calculus!”_ _

__“See!” Winn exclaims. “Mon-El knows I’m a good teacher, because he gave me a chance to show it to him.”_ _

__She rolls her eyes. “Sorry, Winn. Next time I have a statistics class, I’ll definitely call you.”_ _

__He seems satisfied by this. “Thank you.”_ _

__“What are you guys even arguing about?” Mike asks._ _

__James smirks. “Kara was nerd-cheating on Winn with Lena Luthor.”_ _

__“Oh, was she now?” He looks at her with faux exasperation. “Not cool, Danvers. Not cool.”_ _

__She feels thankful that he’s not mad at her for essentially ditching him all weekend. Mike is not really the kind of guy to get angry often, and she appreciates him very much for it. Few things bother him, and, even when something does, he’s usually very light and breezy about it._ _

__“By the way, how’s that set up thing going? Have you introduced her to Alex yet?” He asks as he plays with his french fries absentmindedly._ _

__Kara immediately regrets having told him about her plan, but she figures there’s no real harm in talking about this at their table. James is the only one who doesn’t know about it already, and she figures there’s no problem if he does._ _

__“I haven’t had a chance to, yet.” She breathes out. “I can’t think of the right way to do it, I don’t know.”_ _

__“What do you mean, right way to do it?” Winn shakes his head. “How about ‘ _hey Alex, this is Lena, hi Lena, this is Alex_ ’?”_ _

__“Wait…” James interjects, catching up with the conversation. “You’re trying to set Lena up with Alex? Lena Luthor is gay? Man, I was actually thinking of asking her out.”_ _

__Kara furrows her brows at him. As far as she knows, James doesn’t even _like_ Lena. But, she is an attractive woman, and men, apparently, only care about that. “Well, she is gay, and it’s not that simple, I can’t just introduce them randomly, it would be super awkward. There has to be some sort of context, you know?”_ _

__“Double blind date?” Mike suggests honestly. “Maybe if you and I are there we can make it less awkward.”_ _

__It’s not a bad idea, but for some reason it makes Kara’s stomach feel weird. Maybe she’s just not ready to see her sister dating a girl just yet. “I don’t know…”_ _

__Truth is, the more Kara thinks about actually introducing Alex and Lena, the more nervous she feels. She thinks of all the things that could go wrong and suddenly this whole plan seems like a terrible idea. She really enjoyed hanging out with Lena during the weekend, even despite the awful statistics. Kara loves her friends, but they’re all men. Her only close female friend in the entire world is her sister, and Alex is great, but she’s her sister. It felt good to talk to a girl who did not grow up with her._ _

__She feels strangely comfortable around Lena, especially considering they’ve only just met. She feels like there are things she and Lena share that she and Alex just don’t. And, if she does set Lena and Alex up, things will probably get very messy very fast. If it works, Lena will be Alex’s girlfriend, and there goes Kara’s hope of having a nice female friendship outside her family. If it doesn’t work, it’s going to be awkward and Lena will probably avoid Kara for the rest of her life. Maybe it’s selfish, thinking like that, but Kara can’t help it._ _

__Her train of thought is interrupted as she realizes suddenly every single person in the table has become stiff._ _

__“Why is everyone so quiet?” She hears from behind her, feeling her cheeks turning purple as she recognizes the voice._ _

__“Alex, hey!” She does her best to sound normal. “We were just talking about...statistics! I had a test this morning. It went pretty well.”_ _

__“It did?” The doubtful look in Alex’s face is frankly a little offensive. “Well, good for you, I guess.”_ _

__“So, what brings you here on this lovely day, Alex?” Winn breaks the tension. “It’s been a while since the last time you joined us kids for lunch.”_ _

__It’s true, Alex almost always has lunch with her older, cooler grad school friends. Kara was a little irritated by this in the beginning but she eventually realized it was silly. Alex is allowed to have her own friends._ _

__“Well, to be completely honest, I saw Maggie sitting on a table near my usual lunch place and I decided to save myself from the public humiliation.” Her tone is damp with sarcasm but Kara knows Alex only does this to cover up how hurt she actually feels._ _

___Maggie_. Kara has never seen this girl in her entire life but she already doesn’t like her, which is really saying something considering Kara Danvers _never_ dislikes anybody. Growing up, Alex was always her rock, the strong, rational complement to Kara’s warm impulsiveness. She had never seen someone mess with Alex’s feelings that much and she definitely did not like it. Alex had always protected her. It’s time Kara protects Alex._ _

__“We’ve missed you!” She smiles genuinely, changing the subject in order to make her sister more comfortable. “How have you been? Still working hard on that project?”_ _

__“Yep.” Alex seems to relax a little. Talking about work always had that strange backwards effect on her. “Ms. O’Donnell has Sara and I completely overworked right now, but I think things are gonna get better pretty soon. She’s finally decided to recruit a new student.”_ _

__“Oh, yeah?” Kara feels a bit relieved. She was worried this research project was going to eat her sister alive. “Who did she pick?”_ _

__“You won’t believe this.” Alex smirks in the way she always does before telling Kara some new gossip. “She picked Lena Luthor. As in Lex Luthor’s little sister? Lionel Luthor’s daughter?”_ _

__Kara feels as if all air had suddenly been sucked out of her longs. “I am...familiar.”_ _

__Alex doesn’t seem to notice Kara’s reaction. “I was pretty suspicious at first - she has that snobby rich girl look - but I read her paper and it really is brilliant. I hope Ms. O’Donnell is right about her.”_ _

__“I, uh...me too.” Kara squeaks, her heart racing. She glances around the table and realizes every single one of her friends is trying hard to suppress their laughter. _At least now I don’t have to worry about introducing them anymore_ , she thinks to herself._ _


	10. Chapter 10

Lena arrives at the lab feeling somewhere between nervous and excited. She takes a long look around and feels glad to see that they really do seem to have state of the art equipment, some even more advanced than their Luthor Corp equivalent. It reassures her that she made the right choice by deciding to join the project. Even though her primary focus is still graduating as soon as possible, she feels that having a little bit of real life lab experience will be good for her in the future. At the very least, she’ll get a better sense of what the market has that Luthor Corp isn’t providing.

Neither Alex nor Professor O’Donnell seem to be around, but she does see a blonde girl sitting on the lab’s right corner, her eyes fixed on the stack of papers she’s holding, her feet lazily propped up on the table in front of her. The girl gets up the moment she notices Lena, greeting her with a warm smile and a handshake.

She looks absolutely nothing like what Lena had imagined she would find in this lab. Instead of a traditional lab wear, she’s wearing toms, light khaki pants and a white polo shirt with short sleeves revealing extremely toned biceps.

“I know what you’re thinking.” She says with a smirk. “I’m way too buff to be in here, right?”

Something in her tone is teasing, almost… _flirty_. Lena’s not sure what this girl’s deal is but decides to play along. “Something like that, maybe.”

“Well, I don’t blame you. Besides, you’re way too pretty to be in this lab too, but here we are, so fuck stereotypes I guess.” She shrugs. “I’m Sara Lance, by the way. I’m the team’s physical therapist. I guess you must be Lena Luthor, right?”

Sara says her name as if it’s just like any other name and it makes Lena smile a little. “Yes, I am. I’m looking forward to work with your team, Ms. Lance.”

“Great! We’re very excited to have you here, Lena.” The look in Sara’s eyes makes all of Lena’s remaining doubts disappear. This girl is _definitely_ flirting. “Let me show you around.”

Sara gives her a quick tour of the room, adding brief explanations of which equipment does what. Lena already knows exactly what most of those machines are for, but doesn’t say it. She feels the part of her that actually knows how to act around attractive women kicking in, a part of her that had pretty much stayed quiet the whole time she was in university. She’s not sure if Sara is actually hitting on her or if she’s just one of those people who are flirty by default but either way Lena is intrigued. 

“So, Ms.O’Donnell and Alex should get here soon.” Sara says. “In the meanwhile, let met get you up to speed on the lab’s dynamics. Ms.O’Donnell is amazing, she’s usually pretty chill when it comes to deadlines and stuff like that, you could not find a better supervisor, seriously. Alex handles most of the medical stuff, all the way from how will our components interact with the human body to monitoring the subjects’ brains while she asks them to imagine they’re flexing their unexisting hands. She’s usually a little cold in the beginning - don’t take it personally - but deep down she’s a sweetheart.” 

Lena thinks of the sweet ice-cream photo she’d seen on Alex’ computer and smiles to herself. Clearly Alex Danvers’ tough girl act wasn’t fooling anybody.

“I’m the physical therapist.” Sara continues. “My work is more like teaching the subjects how to work their prosthetics and making sure they’re comfortable. _You_ are going to be our tech person, working to interpret the brain signals and use them to make hardware do cool stuff. Alex is pretty good with tech and she’s been doing most of the work in that field but now that we have our own little engineer we’re hoping she can go back to focus on medicine. Anyways, if you need help with anything, she’s the best person to ask. We have this regular meeting every Thursday to make sure we’re all caught up with each other’s work and also whenever we have a subject ready for trials, but to be honest we’re all here every day and you’ll probably be expected to be here too. It’s not that bad though, I swear. We have our own espresso machine and sometimes Alex’s sister brings us muffins.”

Lena can’t help but smile at the idea of Kara randomly showing up with a bag full of baked goods. That’s such a Kara thing to do. 

“Hello, everyone!” They hear the professor say as she walks into the room, Alex following right behind her holding a giant pile of papers that Lena supposes are student papers to be graded. She suddenly feels deeply relieved that she’s not a T.A. Alex looks visibly stressed. “Welcome to our lab, Lena! We’re very happy to have you joining our research. I trust that Sara has already shown you around?”

“You know it, boss.” Sara says as Lena nods. “I have updated her in all of the department gossip and everything.”

Ms.O’Donnell rolls her eyes at Sara. “Please tell me you didn’t scare her off already!’

Lena is pleasantly surprised by how different the professor seems outside of the classroom. Ms. O’Donnell is an excellent teacher, but her attitude during her lectures is generally stern and authoritative, which is understandable given that she has a class full of stuck up, self-important college students to control. Here in her lab she seems like a completely different person, so much more at ease that it even makes her seem younger. Come to think of it, she seems to be either on her late thirties or early forties, which is quite impressive considering she’s already a department head. 

“She did not, I assure you.” Lena smiles politely. “In fact, I’m very excited to start working with you all.”

“Great!” The professor exclaims, taking a seat at what Lena presumes to be her desk. “Let’s get started, then. Alex, can you pull up the notes for today’s meeting?”

“Sure thing.” The girl says as she opens up her laptop. “The first thing we’re supposed to discuss today are the results from the preliminary tests with Subject 103.”

As the meeting goes on, Lena grows more and more interested in the project, feeling eager to start getting her hands dirty. This is real life state-of-the-art research applied directly to making people’s lives better, it’s everything Lena had ever dreamed to do. She was always more of a lab rat than a business woman deep down, and even though she knows that this is not what the future has planned for her, maybe there’s nothing wrong with enjoying this experience while she still can. She’s not a CEO, not yet. For now, she can just be a college student.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldn't help myself i just had to put sara in this


End file.
